The age-old chant has a more nuanced meaning in modern-day hockey, where all the defencemen, it seems, skate beautifully, and swiftly. And where most of them are not merely willing, but encouraged by their coaches to join the rush at the flick of an eyelash.

Sometimes — oftentimes, apparently — the best dee-fence is to deploy the rearguards on owe-fence, owe-fence, creating a second wave on the attack that can confound opposing defences.

That reality certainly was on display Saturday, as the Edmonton Oil Kings defeated the Prince Albert Raiders 5-3 in Game 1 of their best-of-seven WHL Eastern Conference first-round series against the Prince Albert Raiders.

Josh Morrissey, the Raiders 28-goal-scoring star defenceman, and Brendan Guhle, scored two of the Raiders’ three goals on Saturday, and Morrissey assisted on another.

For Edmonton, Dysin Mayo scored a goal from the edge of the crease, and drew an assist on another goal, while Griffin Reinhart and Ashton Sautner also drew assists.

“I don’t know if you saw it in the third period, but we had two defencemen at their goal line,” said Oil Kings head coach Derek Laxdal, on the subject of ‘activating the defencemen.’ “You’re trying to create offence.

“You’re trying to create odd-number rushes and both teams do it very well. Obviously, Morrissey does it well, Guhle scored the one goal.

“It forces your forwards to backcheck a little harder. It opens up the game a little bit, creates a bit more pace and that’s something we can play both ways. If we have to play defensively, we’ll do it, if we have to open up the pace, we’ll do it.

“And you saw that they can play the same way.”

You really saw it on the goal by Guhle, who jumped right up into the slot to take a tape-to-tape pass from Jayden Hart, which the Sherwood Park native one-timed past Oil Kings goalie Tristan Jarry.

It wasn’t just the first playoff goal for the first-year WHL player, it was Guhle’s first goal as a Raider, period.

“I guess it worked out good. It would have been way better if we had won.”

Guhle said that under head coach Cory Clouston, Raiders’ defencemen also are encouraged to take calculated risks and take the fight to the opponent.

“They love the fourth guy in, or even the third guy, if you beat them up (the ice),” Guhle said. “So, yeah, jumping up into the play for defencemen is huge nowadays.

“It’s another option for our offence and it produces a lot of goals.”

But for some sparkling saves by goalie Cole Cheveldae, who replaced Prince Albert starter Nick McBride, who gave up three goals on nine first-period shots, and was solid the rest of the way for the visitors.

During one Edmonton power play, there went big Reinhart on a smooth, solo rush, stopped by Cheveldae on a point-blank chance.

“I came in and tried to roof it and just missed it a little bit,” Reinhart said of his offensive sortie. “Our D are encouraged to go out there and jump up in the rush and add to the offence, we’ve been doing that for the last four seasons.

“I’m pretty comfortable with it. At the same time, you have to be careful. You have to know who you’re out there against and when you’re out there against (Leon) Draisitl and those guys, they’re quick in their transition and they can capitalize if they beat you on the odd-man rush, so you’ve got to be careful.”

Morrissey, a Winnipeg Jets prospect, is very much in the mould of a whole platoon of young, Canadian defencemen, such as Morgan Rielly and Jake Gardiner of Toronto, Derek Pouliot, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ prospect playing for the Portland Winterhawks, on and on.

It’s risk and reward, obviously. Morrissey was victimized for a pair of Oil Kings goals, but he also helped drive the Raiders offence on Saturday, as he does most games.

“It’s something we really try to work on,” Morrissey said. “It gives us a lot of offence and it holds teams down low, makes them respect it.

“It kind of depends on the player. I think it kind of depends on your unique assets, if you’re more of an offensive guy. But, even at that, everyone is encouraged to get up there and be a part of that rush.”

Morrissey, a compact six-feet, 180 pounds, and a smooth skater, is a natural at the 200-foot game, seemingly.

“Edmonton does a good job of backchecking. With our first wave, especially, they work really hard and a lot of teams are at this time of the year. Sometimes, when you get a chance to look at that second wave it opens up another chance.

“As a defenceman, when that’s coming in on you, you can only take away so many passing lanes. If there’s a guy going right to the net, you kind of have to respect that, so it opens up that one up high.”

Opening up the game made for an entertaining spectacle on Saturday, that’s for sure. Game 2 goes Sunday at 4 p.m. at Rexall Place.

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